Ricerca Progetti nazionali, regionali, internazionaliNAZIONALIPRIN 2022 PNRRDeveloping PEPtide molecules

Developing PEPtide molecules targeting the plant immune system to fight HERBicide-resistant weeds [PEP-HERB]

The EU Green Deal aims at halving the use of hazardous pesticides by 2030. To match agricultural productivity and sustainability, environmentally-friendly herbicidal solutions are urgently needed. Herbicides include a very broad array of molecules that hit, by their mechanism of action, relatively few molecular targets in plants. Weeds have evolved resistance to most existing mechanisms of herbicidal action, but, surprisingly, only one new herbicidal mechanism has been developed in the last 35 years. With the goal of fighting herbicide-resistant weeds, PEP-HERB envisages the plant innate immune system as a totally novel target in weeds, and biocompatible short peptides, derived from the immunogenic epitopes of microbial PAMP (pathogen-associated molecular pattern) proteins, as a new class of herbicidal molecules. PEP-HERB will exploit the PAMP protein cerato-platanin (CP), which was proved effective against Lolium spp. in our preliminary assays. Poaceae contain the highest number of herbicide-resistant weed species worldwide. The designed peptides will be portions of the CP loops most likely responsible for its activity, and will act by stimulating an immune response in the weed plant, thereby negatively affecting its development and survival. Plants lack mobile immune cells but possess an innate immune system able to detect microbe-derived molecules. PEP-HERB’s new herbicidal mechanism is based on the solid assumption that plants induced to defend themselves divert their metabolism from growth to defense (the phenomenon is known as “growth-defense tradeoff”) and the immune reaction may result in tissue necrosis as a form of programmed cell death.

The possibility of obtaining selectivity towards a weed, and tolerance by the crop of interest, is given by the recent scientific evidence showing that different plant families or genera sense different epitopes of the same PAMP protein, and polymorphisms in these epitopes affect differently the occurrence of an immune response in different plant families or genera. No herbicidal mechanism developed up to date targets the innate immune system of plants, and no herbicide includes peptides as active ingredients. The peptide herbicide, given its non-volatile nature, its ease of degradation into amino acids, and its safety for microbes and mammals, ensures sustainability. PEP-HERB will be pioneer in developing new herbicides based on microbe-derived peptides as alternatives for weed control, and will contribute to reducing the impact of harmful herbicides on human health and the environment. PEP-HERB is coherent to the Cluster 6 (Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment), subcluster 6.4. Three research units (RUs), located at the National Research Council of Italy, at the University of Florence, and at the University of Padua, will join forces and use their complementary expertise to synthesize, test, characterize and validate the peptide-based herbicide.

 

Data di avvio 30 Novembre 2023

Data di completamento 30 Novembre 2025

Total cost  €71437

 

Progetto P2022NEJ8K finanziato all’interno del Bando PRIN 2022 PNRR di cui al Decreto Direttoriale n. 1409 del 14/9/2022 nell’ambito del Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza, Missione 4 – Componente 2. Dalla Ricerca all’Impresa - Investimento 1.1 Fondo per il Programma Nazionale della Ricerca (PNR) e Progetti di Ricerca di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN), finanziato dall’Unione europea – NextGenerationEU – CUP B53D23032240001